The present invention relates generally to communication networks and, more particularly, to delivering services via communication networks.
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national broadcast warning system that is jointly administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the National Weather Service. Voluntary EAS systems also exist at the state and local levels. An EAS message consists of four parts: a header, an attention signal, an audio announcement, and an end-of-message marker. The header contains information about who originated the alert, e.g., President, state/local authorities, National Weather Service, etc., a short description of the event, the geographic areas affected, the expected duration of the event, the date and time the alert was issued, and an identification of the originating transmission station. EAS decoders parse the header to decide whether to ignore the alert or whether to broadcast the alert to the local area associated with the decoder based on the geographic information contained in the header. The header is followed by the attention signal, which is a combination of two sine waves of different frequencies. After the attention signal, a voice message follows that describes the details of the alert. The EAS message concludes with an end-of-message marker. The FCC requires that all broadcast stations install and maintain EAS decoders and encoders to monitor signals from other broadcast stations for EAS messages and to broadcast EAS messages as appropriate.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional EAS network. As shown in FIG. 1, an EAS message 100 is transmitted from a source, such as a national, state, or local authority, and is received by an EAS decoder 120. An example EAS decoder may be provided by Vela Frontline™ brand decoders available from Vela Corporation, Clearwater Fla. The EAS decoder 120 may be configured to process the analog EAS message 100, which includes the header, attention signal, audio announcement, and end-of-message marker, and convert it into, for example, one or more Extensible Markup Language (XML) files for transmission into an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) platform 130. IPTV is a system where digital television service is delivered using the Internet over, typically, a broadband network infrastructure. One such IPTV platform that can be used as the IPTV platform 130 in FIG. 1 is Microsoft TV IPTV Edition™ available from Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash. Microsoft TV IPTV Edition is an integrated and comprehensive software platform developed specifically to deliver broadcast-quality video and new, integrated TV services over broadband networks.
The digital EAS message may, thus, be delivered to a customer's TV via a set-top box 140 using the IPTV platform 130 so as to display the alert information on the customer's TV. FIG. 1 illustrates one example of delivering an EAS message over an IPTV platform to a customer's TV. EAS messages can be broadcast to recipients using a variety of media, including, but not limited to, AM/FM radio, VHF/UHF television, cable television, wireless cable television, digital television, digital cable, and satellite radio. In general, as can be seen from FIG. 1 and the accompanying discussion, EAS messages are typically broadcast into a network and delivered directly to a client device.